New-look TAMIU eyes breakout season

TAMIU trailed 27-25 at Division I North Texas on Tuesday at halftime before falling off in the second half losing 64-38 in an exhibition game.

With a rough first season in the rear-view mirror, Texas A&M International women’s basketball coach Jeff Caha is excited to a fresh start in 2017-18.

The Dustdevils begin their next campaign this week on Friday and play four road games in a five-day span. With 11 new players out of the 12 total on the roster, the group has a lot of unknowns leading into the upcoming year.

“I’m excited,” Caha said. “I really like them and we’ve had a bunch of good weeks put together. Everyone is sick of practice. We are ready to see if they can do what we think they can do and see if we know what we are doing.”

Caha was hired last season to replace Michelle Bento-Jackson, who was the most successful coach in school history over her four years in Laredo. The departing coach went to Humboldt State and took eight recruits with her, and the Dustdevils were never able to recover.

TAMIU instead went into the year with only eight players and later lost more to injuries and academics. Ultimately, the majority of the season was played with around five or six players, and on one occasion the team even had to play 5 on 4 during a game. The lack of bodies led to a program-worst 2-25 campaign as the team averaged only 47.5 points.

“This year’s team has been fun. I really enjoy these girls,” Caha said. “We can actually go in and practice every day. We can run drills. We had six players so we couldn’t do much last year. It’s hard to get better.

“We were able to go into August with a plan instead of coming in and just getting the job. We did sign one player late in the last week of July or first week of August, but other than that, we had our team set from the middle of June. We were able to sit here in August and talk about what we wanted to run and the lineups we could do instead of trying to figure out how to get vehicles and purchase flights (for recruiting).”

Caha isn’t holding back on the current crop of players out of the gate. TAMIU is immediately hitting the road this season playing four straight and eight of their opening nine outings outside Laredo. That includes this weekend’s stretch competing at Chadron State College at 5:30 p.m. on Friday in Nebraska before playing a pair of games in South Dakota taking on Black Hills State at 6 on Saturday and Northern State at 7 on Monday.

The group will then head home but play an exhibition on the way at Division I North Texas Tuesday at 7.

“As we were building this team and thinking about everything, we started thinking from the kids we were signing that we are going to be good,” Caha said. “That kind of played into the schedule. To win championships, you have to be able to win on the road. We are going to play in some tough environment.

“Chadron State is kind of in the middle of nowhere and it’s hard to get there. Same with Black Hills State. Our third game is against Northern State, and they’ve led NCAA Division II on the men’s and women’s side in attendance like nine of the past 10 years. So that’s going to be a test. They’re going to have 3,000 people there for their home opener against us.”

Even with a promising new roster, there is still some concern internally about how the team will handle such challenges in their first action together. CSC (7-18) and BHSU (9-17) had their struggles last year and were a combined 9-15 at home, but NSU was 24-7 including an 11-2 record in Wachs Arena.

“The thought process was to test us early and see how we do in hard environments,” Caha said. “There’s a lot we can still get better at. From today to the first week of December, we only practice like six more times because we are on the road traveling and playing so many games. We are going to have to learn in games. That’s scary because a lot of times you are worried that in order to learn, you’re going to lose. I hope we can learn without losing.”

TAMIU’s learning curve will be on the shoulders of a brand new group, with Veshae Asaua-Wilkinson as the team’s only returner. She didn’t see much action in 2016-17 either, suffering a season-ending concussion only two games in.

Ashley Perez will take the reins of the offense as the New Mexico Junior College transfer will begin the year as the team’s starting point guard. Passionate Amukamara (Northern Arizona) and Tantashea Giger (Johnson County CC) will take over the No. 2 and 3 spots, respectively, while Julia Hanni (Western Wyoming CC) will begin at power forward. Asaua-Wilkinson will be back in action as the team’s center for her senior season.

“Ashley is really good at pushing the ball the way we want to play,” Caha said. “Passionate and Tantashea on the wings — I don’t know if there will be a more athletic set of guards in our conference. They are really fast and can defend. Julia is a worker who’s very skilled and loves to run and work hard. Veshae is very skilled and a very good passer from the post. She was a unanimous vote as our only team captain. She went out and earned that.

“Those five are pretty good. They play well together. When we do drills, they get it. We are deep and I think we can play 10.”

The bench will undoubtedly be the biggest change of pace for the Dustdevils as the group didn’t have one at all for many games last year. This year’s team has plenty of talent to rotate as sophomores Jaden Gonzales (Dixie State) and Lashae Rolle (Tiffin) are joined by senior Renee Contreras (Northwestern Oklahoma State) as big pieces — the latter a former 2013-14 LMT All-City MVP leading Alexander to a district title. Junior forward Kydell Pearson (Irvine Valley CC) will also be counted on in the future but will be out at least the first four games of the season as she is in her native New Zealand for a family emergency.

Off the bench, we are really looking for Jaden Gonzales to come off the bench and bring a spark. She can really score and shoot it well,” Caha said. “Lashae Rolle is big, super strong and athletic. She can really help off the bench. Renee Contreras will be our backup point guard. She’s a senior and is one of the most mentally tough people I’ve ever coached.”

The group also has two talented freshmen that it is trying to work in but giving time to grow. That includes a pair of guards from Texas including Alexander’s Dannia Gonzalez and Devine’s Vanessa Oyola. Gonzalez is a two-time reigning LMT All-City MVP and 2016-17 District 29-6A MVP who averaged 13 points, 10 rebounds, six assists and six steals last year leading the Lady Bulldogs to a 37-2 record and a 30-game winning streak.

“Both of them have had good and bad days,” Caha said. “They both have a big learning curve. Some days they look like they’re getting it and other days it’s a struggle. But I think for us to be really, really good, Dannia and Vanessa have to grow up quick on the basketball court. They’re both skilled enough, they just haven’t played at this speed.”

Not surprisingly, the Dustdevils haven’t gotten much respect from the get go from the rest of the Heartland Conference after last year’s campaign. The group was picked in the preseason poll to finish seventh in the eight-team league with 37 total points, just ahead of Rogers State (32). Lubbock Christian (116), the 2015-16 NCAA Division II champions and a team that returns last year’s Heartland Player of the Year in Tess Bruffey, was the top selection to win the title with 116 points and nine first-place votes.

Caha, however, voted for his team to place second in the preseason poll, and neither he nor his players care much about their low early ranking.

“Not a lot of coaches vote based on who you recruited,” Caha said. “They don’t really look at that, they look at where you finished last year. We were picked seventh, I picked us to finish second. I voted LCU first because I really respect Steve Gomez, the head coach there, because he does such a good job. I definitely think we have the chance to be at the top.

“As far as motivation goes, none of (our players) were here last year. They understand we were being judged on last year and they’re like, ‘None of us were here, so why do we care?’”

Follow @ZachDavisLMT on Twitter for the latest news on TAMIU athletics and other local sports.